Duty an Honor, A novel of the JL set in M41
by Lord of Legions
Summary: Chapter 1 of my Warhammer 40k novel


Warhammer 40,000

Duty and Honor

A JL Novel

By Josh Giurlani

Prologue

Most of you probably do not know who I am, or what the JL is, I requested this opportunity from Inquisitor Vail to write the prologue for this first (by first I mean available for the inquisition to read, I would of course give them more but that is a story for another day.) installment in my archive of adventures. For starters I might as well introduce myself I am Josh Giurlani and I rule the JL the largest empire ever created or envisaged. My empire has become a great ally and friend to the Imperium, and is much bigger in terms of Territory and military so the Inquisition and the Commissariat have kept an eye on me, however, Inquisitor Amberley Vail is the only member of the Inquisition that is not constantly breathing down my neck but she still watches me (for the record she will probably read this segment she need not read the rest of it, for she recorded and edited it so I choose what I write carefully so I am not burned for Heretical reasons.) and despite what the Commissariat thinks I am not a threat to the safety and well being of the Imperium. I have made a considerable amount of friends and enemies throughout my long military service, one in particular that I found a very good friend and colleague is Commissar Ciaphas Cain, I shall never forget the day we met on Perlia, an event I shall mention in other parts of my archive, and another thing I am not even going to try to explain the life span process of my people but trust me it's long. Well I've had a few lines to explain myself so; I'll let Amberley take it from here.

Excluding a few short fragments all extracts from the Josh Giurlani archive which I have put together (this being the first) cover a relatively small period in his very long and exciting career, from approximately 924 M41 to 944 M41 only twenty years. These segments are told completely from Josh's Perspective, apart from the occasional footnote and material from other sources where I felt necessary to widen his somewhat self centered accounts. Also because of his somewhat loose way of storytelling I have broken the fragments down into chapters to facilitate easy reading. Apart from that his accounts remain completely unedited and unadulterated.

ONE

This month began like any other, I woke up to a good breakfast (good considering the conditions of this backwater nowhere planet.) and a steaming mug of recaf from my ever faithful aide Sgt. James Halcer. (Halcer was a native from the ice world of Feric Prime. On that world was one of the many campaigns I participated in every decade. I chose him as my aide and as my friend on one fateful day in the planet's secondary capital of Fenra, when he saved me from being ripped to shreds by an incoming krak missile, after which I asked his name, and to him I owed a great debt of gratitude. Now I don't think he realized who I was until I turned to face him, because the second I did he seemed to have gone numb for he just sat there and stammered. I… and… the missile… and you were… but shortly thereafter he just straightened up and started speaking very fast. "Pfc. James Halcer, Co. G. 231st Feric Rifles, I was just trying to save a comrade SIR." Drop the formalities Pvt. I just asked for your name. Thanks for saving me, anytime sir.

Listen I'm Looking for an aide, want the job? He must have been shocked because he almost fainted. He knew that the job was an awesome responsibility, and frankly he was amazed, I just met him and already trusted him with my life. "Sir with all due respect I don't think this is the right time." Alright then we kick some Chaos ass then we'll talk Sgt., "but sir I'm a Pvt." Not anymore. "Thank you SIR." Alright their gonna fall back and regroup, I say we charge. "Sir we don't have enough firepower to take down all their armor support." That's why we're taking some sentinels. I climbed on top of the ramparts and yelled through my voice amplifier. Soldiers follow me, what say we take the battle to them. My shout was met with the cheers of fifty thousand troopers. I hefted myself over the entrenchments Halcer at my side and at the top my voice Screamed CHARGE!! With Many shouts from down the line the 206th – the 231st Feric rifle regiments surged over the trench walls in a wave of solid bodies. Downwind the ten thousand or so chaos Marines in the sector shifted around immediately and opened up on us with everything from Bolters to Auto Cannons. During the first few minutes of our charge about one thousand men from all down the line were dropped by the Marines. Once we closed to about fifty meters the Chaos Marines whipped out their knives and charged us, at which point I ordered a swift and decisive halt and we let them have it, until them met us, which was about ten seconds. We gave it our all, stabbing with bayonets or slashing and hacking with combat knives. I watched as my men stove in skulls, hacked off limbs, and gutted the Chaos minions of Khorne. Officers drove their pistols into the mouths of helmetless marines on full automatic, shredding their brains. I myself took my chainsword, and downed around three dozen of the bastards. The battle went on for another hour before we'd killed them all. We let out a thunderous battle cry and raised our weapons and colors regimental and those of our JL Empire. I told Colonels Jacques, and Jordan to take their regiments and mop up any stragglers, the rest I told to head back to the base for some down time, much to their enjoyment. Only I and Halcer, Stayed on the battlefield. I looked around at the scene of carnage and the bodies six thousand of my men, I felt weak in my knees so I knelt down, closed my eyes and then I cried for what seemed like hours before Halcer tapped me on the shoulder, "What's wrong sir?" he asked, sympathy in his voice. I said in a shaken voice "all the men who have died today, it's my fault that they died, I ordered the charge. "No it's not your fault sir, the men who died here today could have been many more if you hadn't given that order, you turned the tide of the battle, you won the day for us." I looked up at him and said "two hundred of these men were from your regiment. Some were probably your friends." I resumed my crying "Sir these men knew what was at stake when they joined the army, they died for their country, and their homes and families, for you." I stood and looked him in the face "Thank you James and you don't have to call me sir all the time, you can call me Josh." Now let's leave this depressing place and get some food.)

For three years after that I was not the same, I avoided the mass burials and the funerals, for the fallen. Instead during these times I went to the chapel and prayed to god. Because of the battles almost every day during that time, I was in the chapel nearly twelve hours out of the week not including church on Sundays. But anyway back to the original story.

After accepting my food I nodded thanks to him, and he left the room. While I was enjoying my grox and cheddar omelet which I must say was delectable I noticed a newspaper lying on my coffee table (probably the local crap) so I decided to read, in spite of what I usually saw in the papers on colony worlds like Haitia, I found not much in this news, which I thought was not fit to use for latrine purposes. I tossed it into the trash, finished my omelet, and got dressed. When I left my quarters I was greeted by the familiar clicking sound of keyboards and the sight of paper pushers; rushing back and forth doing something involving field reports and statistics. Halcer as always was at my heels, following me everywhere almost as though it were second nature to him. We walked outside towards the barracks, it was still early and it was an overcast day, it was even raining a little bit. I decided to pay a visit to the enlisted men. Most if not all of them were still asleep as revile wasn't till seven. I randomly selected a bunker and went inside, I told Halcer to stay outside and eat something. Inside all was quiet nobody moved, nobody stirred, they all were fast asleep (for the moment) I went over to a sleeping trooper and yanked the blankets from his bed. He responded in kind by saying "Frak off Jack I told you not to bug me while I sleep, or I'll rip you a new one. Well sorry if my breathing disturbs you. Jack I know you just took my blankets. No I didn't. Frak yes you did, what other bitch possibly would have? That would be me. I said in an air of authority that would have had a general jumping out of his skin. And who the frak are you? Why don't you take a look. At which point he sat up and turned completely white. MY apologies sir, did we miss revile, hey everybody wake up we missed revile, The Sergeant is going to be pissed off. We must be the only ones too why else would the Lord of Legions be here? The Lord of Legions here? I heard the man he had referred to as Jack say. Rise and shine ladies, thanks to your friend here you all have an extra hour of drill today. Dak why do you always have to cause us problems with the brass? Hey frak off man I didn't know it was him. Hey bucky you didn't miss revile, you still had an hour, but not anymore. Damn it was only response I got from the lot of them. Sometimes I hate my job but it's these things that make the stress vanish, sort of. I told them to get dressed and move their lazy asses to the parade ground (in JL facilities where drill is usually performed.) I left the bunker with an air of amusement that had lightened my mood significantly. I walked towards the command centre to spend the rest of the hour socializing with the early risers and the like. Halcer went with me, but I told him that I would send when I needed him, so he sat outside with one of the many porno slates he possessed to pass the time, and I went inside. The only people in there at this early hour unusually today appeared only to be my girlfriend Jesse, she was an early riser possibly the earliest one in the 231st (feric rifles, I adopted the regiment as my guard and the brigade as my combat family by guard I mean that they went with me everywhere, I assigned them to me.) and because of that until others arrived at the CP she kept herself relaxed, almost asleep. She had her officers cap down over her eyes and her feet were on the desk, (when others were here I told her not to do that because it was a bit unprofessional for a Captain. (She is in command of company G the very company that led the heroic charge with me on Feric Prime; she was a sergeant back then, funny how ten years goes by so fast huh.) I walked over to her and smiled, I decided to let her rest, until she actually had a reason to get up. There was basically nothing to do, seeing as how only the paper pushers were up and about, aside from the twenty men I had visited earlier. So I just walked outside, and found Halcer sweating, his hands shaking and just a blank stare on his face. "I think you better lay off the porn for a while." I said with an awkward look at him. I looked down at him and noticed that it was not a piece of his suspiciously acquired materials that he held, it was a battle report. "Take a look at this sir." He said stammering. I took the dataslate from his hand a bit too hastily, and read.

+Battle Report, of Havlact station.

Battle outcome: Defeat

Estimated Casualties:

510th Haron regulars: 87

23rd Halkais infantry: 100

143rd Gavoran rifles: 90

435th Tarone Infantry: 100

798th Haitian Infantry: 80

200th Haitian Infantry: 96

4th Haitian Infantry: 100

14th Haitian Infantry: 91

10th Mordan Artillery: 89

56th Jeitan Artillery: 100

Defenders of outpost 23-T: 90

Command Post, General Bryzan: KIA

Number of troops originally:13,000

Estimated Troops Remaining: 1,305

Estimated Enemy Casualties.

1-10th Legions of Khorne: 50

11-30th Legions of Khorne: 40

Khornate Artillery: 35

Khornate Armored divisions: 47

Chaos Marines of Khorne: 30

Original Enemy Numbers: 600,000

Troops Remaining: 400,000

Estimated Legion troops ready to face threat: 100,000

Distance between Enemy forces and HQ, fifteen miles and closing, estimated time to arrival 15 mins.

My god. I had to keep a tone nervousness from my voice too, but almost as soon as I'd gone into my state of shock, I broke from it.

Get all commanders on the line, get their troops roused and to the frontline. I got on the HQ comm channel and made my broadcast, this is combat HQ, I need all legion troops not currently positioned, within thirty miles of this signal, to get their asses over here right now, we've got enemy forces incoming, and fast. I ran into the CP, "Jesse wake up, we've got 400,000 Khornate troops fifteen miles out, their moving on us fast as hell."

"What now?" Jesse screamed, she fell out of her chair. "Ah shit."

I helped her up, "Rouse the 231st" I said. And I don't give a damn if the Colonel is still sleeping; tell him to get his ass moving.

I ran to every bunk house I could find and screamed through the doorways. "Come on boys we got Tangos incoming fast, and lots of them." At every bunker I went to soldiers were jumping out of bed, tripping over their equipment, or slipping on ammo belts and their armor, seeing as how there was not much time to put stuff on that wasn't with you already. As I ran to line center, I was followed by the platoon of troops I'd seen earlier. "What going on sir?" Asked Dak. I told him in the calmest tone I could manage, "Khornate troops… incoming… lot of them… fast. "Well sir doesn't look like anyone one else would be suitable to guard you at this moment, so allow us."

Thank you Cpl. I said as I jumped in the trench, Halcer at my heels, then beside me in an instant. I noticed that more and more troopers were pouring from their barracks, hundreds of them. Some weren't completely dressed but they at least had the essentials, they would need them, the enemy was coming and the devil himself would be on their heels coming at us with an army's worth of daemons. We were dug in and hopefully we could hold them indefinitely… hopefully.


End file.
